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Thursday, February 5, 2009

Black Eyed Kids Are Back!

As predicted, Black Eyed Kids show signs of heating up as the new paranormal meme. And, of course, Oklahoma wants to get in on the mix. Jason Offutt of the blog "From the Shadows" speculates whether there is any truth to the tales or if the whole thing is an Internet Legend.

According to Offutt, the phenomenon (involving spooky Children-of-the-Cornesque kids with solid black eyes) arose in 1998 when journalist Brian Bethel first wrote about an encounter. Recently, Offutt received an e-mail from a reader (henceforth referred to as "Bill") who recounted his own encounter with these creepy kids while driving through Afton, OK.

Afton is a negligible settlement on the Will Rogers turnpike some miles northeast of Tulsa. It lies within the Spooksville Triangle, an area of paranormal activity most often connected to the mysterious noctilucent phenomenon known as Spook Lights. Bill had stopped through to catch up with old friends. While there, he noticed the family's new dog and inquired about its origins. Bill's friends responded with a queer and cryptic "the weird kids left her when they left town."

The couple proceeded to tell Bill about their strange encounter with a group of kids who drove an old but noiseless van and had knocked on their door one day. The group asked if they could come in, but the couple didn't feel right. Something was off. They later described the youths as "junkies" because, they said, "their pupils were huge". In fact, according to the Bill's friend, they were solid black voids.

After turning the kids away, they left in their van and a short time later, the dog was seen wandering about. The family saw no more of the mysterious kids with their pleas of entry and their strange black eyes.

The unsual thing about these stories - aside from the eyes, of course - is the fact that nothing sinister or untoward happens. People just state that something didn't feel "right". If, as many suspect, this is simply another paranormal zeitgeist, born from that altogether paranoid collective consciousness, then why has it now settled into the guise of children, forever the bastions of innocence and faith? Have we as a society become so distrustful and paranoid that we can't even look toward the young without suspicion and fear? What does this say about the world we now live in, and what does it bode for our future?

The whole thing is rife with undeniable symbols and archetypes. In shadow people cases, MIB cases, and BEK cases, there is a strong thematic element of black, a color long associated with evil. The latter two cases frequently consist of individuals who don't seem to speak or act quite right, as if there was something alien about them. There is the implicit (and sometimes explicit) threat. There is always a sense of paranoia. However, with MIB cases, there always seems to be a clear mission, an understanding of what it is they want (or don't). These BEK cases seem to personify the social shorthands of a 21st century digital age: u don't need 2 explain n e thing. We can draw upon a wealth of shared ideographs (supplied by the film, TV, and the Internet) to fill in the blanks, and in doing so, the most fearful element of all - our imagination - finds purchase in the story's many gaps.

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This is your source for everything concerning the nonficiton work, Strange State: Mysteries and Legends of Oklahoma, an exciting tome covering the paranormal and strange in the Sooner State. Topics include: Ghosts and Hauntings, Bigfoot / Sasquatch, UFO's, Buried Treasure, and Anomalous Archaeology.

You will also read accounts and articles on paranormal happenings from around the country and across the globe. Chapter excerpts from forthcoming works and even short stories will be included as well.

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THE AUTHOR

Cullan Hudson is the author of Strange State: Mysteries and Legends of Oklahoma, a nonfiction collection of strange-but-true tales from the Sooner State. Many of the tales included in this collection were investigated personally by the author. Hudson's short story, "The Iron Door: Curse of the Sierra Jumanos", was included in the 2005 Red Dirt Anthology and his op-ed pieces have been read across the country. Hudson is the co-author of the supernatural thriller, The Mound, a novel set in Eastern Oklahoma. A meticulous researcher, Hudson has, in one reviewer’s words, "left few stones unturned in his search for the truth." While his interest in the paranormal stems from personal experience, Hudson remains a true skeptic, demanding the rigorous application of logic to any investigation.

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